There's a photoshop of a Compact Mac with bondi iMac styling and Mac OS 9 on the screen out there, but I can't find it again unfortunately. I wanted to post it here.
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What if Apple had released the PowerMac in other colors?
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Do you happen to know if there were Trinitron or Diamondtron multiscan CRTs made in either 9" or 12"?
For the former, the best/most recent I can find, excluding the CRT in the Macintosh Color Classics, is a CRT from ’91 (pic below) and also a Philips/Magnavox 9" CRT (but it’s a single-scan NTSC television, not a computer monitor) from around 2000–01.
With such a small CRT, a shadow mask is just fine (and I'd say that it's probably fine even on a midsize monitor, like a 15") -- I have a 13" TV that I can't really tell is RF-only from how small the picture is. It's being able to do high refresh rates that really determines usability in this case, I'd say 800x600@100Hz or 120Hz is probably the ideal for that, but 85Hz is more likely and still fine.
Also, thanks for the link, now I'll have dreams about all the monitors I can't have.
Also, thanks for the link, now I'll have dreams about all the monitors I can't have.
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I'm a complete idiot and forgot that the iBook came in a 12" form factor. I'd probably use one of those since it's about 10% of the price.
If we're talking about small display Macs, then I think the MacBook Air 11 inch has the smallest flat panel display Apple used in a Mac (ignoring the Mac Portable which had a 9.5" black and white LCD display)
Yeah, but it's not a G3 or G4, so it's not something I'd consider to stuff in a 12" 3D printed iMac. Not to mention, it's widescreen, so it probably wouldn't physically fit.
I think a defective GPU and faulty internal chip-design is the cause and having the problem solved by reballing/re-soldering the same old chip is a myth ...
My experience is, that exposing the logic-board to about 140°C for 10min does normally fix the damaged GPU temporarily and restores the PCIe-Lane-Widht back to x16.
140° is above the melting point of flux (100°C) and far below the melting point of solder (above 200°C), so it wouldn't cause any "reflowing" of solder.
Reballing and resoldering the the BGA onto the board (or the "reflowing-myth" of solder-joints) does need temperatures above the melting-point of solder and therefore might damage other solder-joints of the logic-board - but during these painstaiking procedures you'll heat up the GPU above the magic 140°C anyway and make it work again to make it look like reflowing/reballing has been the cure.
Maybe the 140° does kind of re-fluxing internals of the GPU healing shortcuts/oxidation ... I wouldn't dare/recommend to use higher (or even uncontrolled) temperatures.
Though I don't like the taste of Limoncello Your iBookG3-Limoncello looks georgeous!
Oh, there is a special prototype of the snow-rendering. Guess, who made it ... ?If anyone else wants to make a snow rendering of the clamshell, be my guest!
(Graphite rubber and bezel of the optical drive obviously just removed and pictures photoshopped ... look at the rediculous asking price!)
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Yep. Would definitely get a fully pimped one (G4, SSD, XGA etc.)
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This is your opinion against all South American repair technicians. A huge amount of boards and chips have passed through my hands since 2006, the place where I worked exhaustively used two IR6000 and one honton r690 daily, ALWAYS using the same chip, in only 10% of cases the chip was changed.
140 degrees is not even good for reflow. I've always used temperatures between 250 and 350 for reballing and even reflow.
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Do you happen to know if there were Trinitron or Diamondtron multiscan CRTs made in either 9" or 12"?
For the former, the best/most recent I can find, excluding the CRT in the Macintosh Color Classics, is a CRT from ’91 (pic below) and also a Philips/Magnavox 9" CRT (but it’s a single-scan NTSC television, not a computer monitor) from around 2000–01.
I'm sure there were CRTs as small as 5", if you want to find one, look in the Japanese market, I don't know why, but Japanese people really liked small computers.
The Japanese market was already using flat panel monitors on XT computers in the mid 80's! In the 90s, they had weird, funny, and unusual things, like computers that were also music players, with their own display, something half computer, half stereo, they also used weird formats like MD, and proprietary format floppy disks, look for a Sony Vaio desktop from that era.
I once had a 9" non-flat screen monitor, but if I remember correctly it didn't even work at 1024x768.
If you want to build something using an LCD, it's easy to find LCD screens that work with hdmi and vga, from 3" to 12" on aliexpress, they still manufacture screens with a 4:3 aspect ratio too, they are very used next to a raspberry pi.
I think the whole thing is relatively simple, someone 3D prints an apple display monitor case, and puts a 4:3 LCD inside.
Yes I know 3D printers have a hard time printing a translucent plastic, alternatively, someone can physically mold a monitor model using some kind of clay that hardens over the days, then with an acrylic sheet, heat the acrylic with a torch or something, it will go soft, rest the softened acrylic on your clay model, and the acrylic will copy the shape, so you will have a curved, transparent acrylic piece. I used this technique once to reproduce a car trail light that I no longer found on the market.
www.turbosquid.com
A mini computer that uses a raspberry pi inside, running for example, mac os 9, would be fantastic. PPC emulation is available on qemu, but I don't know if a Raspberry pi is fast enough
Yes I know 3D printers have a hard time printing a translucent plastic, alternatively, someone can physically mold a monitor model using some kind of clay that hardens over the days, then with an acrylic sheet, heat the acrylic with a torch or something, it will go soft, rest the softened acrylic on your clay model, and the acrylic will copy the shape, so you will have a curved, transparent acrylic piece. I used this technique once to reproduce a car trail light that I no longer found on the market.
Apple Studio Display e coleção iMac Modelo 3D - TurboSquid 1019875
Modelo 3D Apple Studio Display e coleção iMac para baizar Como max, c4d, max, max, c4d, obj, and max realeza livre no TurboSquid: modelos 3D para jogos, arquitetura, vídeos. (1019875)
A mini computer that uses a raspberry pi inside, running for example, mac os 9, would be fantastic. PPC emulation is available on qemu, but I don't know if a Raspberry pi is fast enough
POWER9 isn't fast enough and that's just virtualization. Not to mention, whether virtualized or emulated, you'll never be free of latency incurred by running it as a guest OS. The best computer to use as a base would be a 12" white iBook G3, I see a logic board for one tested working for $30 on eBay right now, and it natively runs the same software that a real iMac G3 would, faster than the fastest ones would due to a potentially faster processor and a much newer GPU (Radeon 7500 32MB vs Rage 128 16MB).
I completely forgot, but I had something similar to this, it was a car radio that had a tv, but the display was so small, it was necessary to use an adapter with a magnifying glass
Edit: Has anyone here ever owned a camcorder from the 80s? remember having to put your eye in a hole to see what was being filmed? That hole contained (sometimes) a small CRT tube (monochrome most of the time) that was 0.5". I think there are videos on youtube showing those things working, and even being hacked to receive RF signal.
Yes, I know, and to be honest, I have this project (currently stalled) but already started. I have an ibook with a destroyed screen, which I removed the motherboard, and I was going to make it a mini powermac g4, I don't remember its specs, but I think it's a 1.33ghz or 1ghz. I stopped halfway because I didn't find a solution to prevent the firmware from sending video only to the external VGA connector, it was all the time "thinking" that it had its lcd display connected, and using it as a primary monitor. I managed to set in the control panel, the external display as primary, but some games and programs will still send the signal to the ibook display that doesn't exist.
There are camcorders with CRT viewfinders that already have a video input. My Canon MVX100i has a tiny colour LCD viewfinder — not nearly as cool as a CRT one but it's what I have — and a video input; I've hooked up a PowerBook G4 to it via S-video. That was fun although the resolution is way too low to make out any text.
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Well, I do not doubt, that reballing and reflowing need adequate temperatures far above 200°C.
Fact is, that 140° applied for 10 minutes in a convection oven worked for me so far, let me guess, on 4-5 LogicBoards coming from defective 15"MacBookPros4,1 with a PCIeLaneWidth fading away. (Two of them unfortunately had a relapse: one was toasted between cushions while playing streaming-video, the other was seated in an inappropriate way on an iLapStand, that was used upside down with MBP's critical part was sitting just upon the warm&cosy upholstery-part. They both recovered in another baking-procedure, but lost all their credits to be useful for further mission-critical tasks).
All reballers and reflowers do certainly reach that threshold of 140°C while doing their job.
Question is, wether reballing/reflowing was the cure or simply crossing the magic 140°C line.
Anyway: if I should ever run out of working early2008 15/17"MBP and none of them does respond to 140° bakery anymore, I'd go for the difficult job of replacing the defective GPU instead of the even more painstaiking job of reballing the old faulty GPU.
Just my opinion - you and all South American repair technicians may stick to something else ...
(I would also keep the reballing/reflowing myth alive, if I was to amortize my BGA soldering station - so my personal opinion also stands to maybe all repair technicians here in Europe ... ?)
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Here in Brazil we have laws for this, we are required by law to offer a guarantee, and especially in the place where I worked, we offered an even greater guarantee to ensure the good name of the store. Here, if you make a repair, and the repaired equipment is defective, the technicians are required by law to return the money, or redo the repair until it is good, and you can still respond in court, being a processor for "damage for lost profits ", this means that for every day that the individual was without their laptop, the repair shop will have to reimburse them. So it wouldn't be advantageous to "push" a poorly done repair to someone around here.
If it's a problem with the chips, how do you explain ALL chips from ALL brands having a problem from year 2005 to mid-2012? From Geforce 6100 to Geforce GT 3xxM. From ATI Radeon x300 to ATI Radeon 58xx. Even Intel chips like GMA 950, X3100, MHD4500. All massively defective. That's not to say that replacement chips back then were simply the same chips from the same batch, so if there was a problem with the chips, people just swapped one problem for another one that will manifest in the future. Replacing the chip is certainly much easier, because buying a chip like that in a third world country is like buying a packet of cookies. But this is unfeasible in third world countries, where the chip can cost the value of a motherboard and takes 3 months to arrive.
Please do not misunderstand me. I do not doubt, repairing skills of technicians and their BGA-equippment are outstanding, especially, if working under the pressure of dooming claims for damage or loss.
Failing early intel-MBP with a faulty GPU were sold until the end of 2008. Up to 3y after purchase there ought had to be a recall/repair-program for defective units, so starting from about 2012 people, who purchased a 2nd hand early-intel MBP, that was prone to fail some time under heavy loads (while webpages and video bloated GPU/CPU load at the same time), were left alone. I guess, that were the customers of repair-shops: spent a fortune for 2nd hand Apple hardware, depending on it for mission-critical tasks and facing a device with sudden death/black-screen.
Obviously replacement-GPUs at that time did cost a fortune (now they are at about 30$ max). And presumably everybody was talking about faulty soldering/solder-balls. And while reballing / reflowing with a BGA-station was effective on those faulty GPUs/boards, it became the state of art how to mend the GPU-failure. Well, that has been/still is a worldwide discussion ...
I don't know about what's inside a GPU and the likelyhood of failing. Fact is, that the c2duo MBP from late2008 to early2010 do have the successor model of that faulty GPU (the same, Apple used for fixing faulty units - the green-dot machines) and that they are sturdy computers and not prone to GPU-failure.
Since 140°/10min does also fix the problem and precious care of avoiding overheating might prevent further failure I do believe, that reflowing/reballing is/alway has been overtreatment.
Sorry about the comment about "amortising BGA-soldering stations as a motivation" In 2012 and the following years technicians certainly took their job serious and were very skilled in mending BGA-soldered chips.
But I still believe, that preheating the LogicBoard to 150° prior to the process of swapping the GPU on higher temperatures would have been successful as well.
Let's take this discussion to an end: You'll take the high way (above 200°) and I'll take the low way (at 140°)
(and I'd like to see Scotland again ... ?)
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Really? Wow, thanks!
How I put it together: took the press photos for the key lime iBook (still reachable via archive-dot-org! I’ve been making .icns for it for the SL-PPC project), then selected zones and ran a colour match to one of the more pleasing hues of limoncello from from other pic. I wasn’t sure how it looked to other folks until now, though.
That dude is such a ghoul with his desecration of clamshell iBooks. I hope he never, ever visits Canada, because if he does, I’ll verbally tear him a new one in person. And then I’ll call him and his new opening a human “pRoToTyPe”. —_—
Yep. Would definitely get a fully pimped one (G4, SSD, XGA etc.)
To get the G4, you’d have to settle for one without FireWire (a Rev. A or B from the tangerine/blueberry period), as the Rev C. FireWire models don’t use the PPC750CL chip socket (which is compatible with the PPC7400), but instead use the PPC750cx(e) socket (which isn’t), as found in the final couple of iMac G3 revisions. Which means you might, in theory, be able to eke 700MHz from it.
OK, your point is taken, but for how long after the heat re-flow have these repairs maintained their functional integrity? Weeks? Months? A year? Several years? In the end, field testing for durability of said re-flow is what matters — not whether it worked solely right after a heat re-flow. I am sceptical that these re-flow efforts kept the systems running for several years.
First the question is not reflow, reflow is not repair, it is a procedure that technicians do to know if it is feasible to do reballing. I've never delivered a machine back to a customer just doing reflow. The whole issue comes down to redoing the spheres on the original chip on the board, rather than replacing the chip with another chip. I'm saying that there is no such need (although, in first world countries this is feasible) and much faster and more practical. There is no defect in these chips, the defect is in the tin used.
As I said in other posts, I collect this kind of stuff, I use my collection equipment on weekends, but I also have daily equipment that I tidy myself and use in everyday life (my video card). My family's equipment is old, and I have also repaired it in the past, and I was able to closely monitor its operation. My Xbox 360, my PS3 (cecha model, with internal ps2 chip, and 4 usb ports)), a lot of my laptops. As I'm a technician (and I'm a poor guy) I can't pay for any equipment in full working order, I usually buy them defective and make the necessary repairs, most of the time I resell them, but sometimes I keep them for me.
I believe that the oldest one I have here is an Asus G1s with nvidia 7600gt or 8600gt, 256mb, which I reballed (I didn't change the chip), it was acquired in 2008, but at the time it was already 1 or 2 years old, and when I got it, it just had a black screen when it was turned on, after the service, I used it until 2011 as a laptop for daily use, playing games like fallout 3, and gta iv. I especially like it, and I still use it often to play games from the windows xp era. I change the thermal grease regularly (every year), keep your fan clean and lubricated, but it has never had any problems since.
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I don’t deny your experience that the devices you fixed worked for quite a while, and that reballing with leaded solder fixes lots of other hardware from this timeframe (e.g. XBox).
I believe that the NVIDIA explanation for the 8600M’s problems is an issue with the underfill layer that connects the silicon die to the interposer board that holds the BGA balls on its other side, and that the revised versions of these chips swapped the underfill formula to something more resilient.
NVIDIA encourages OEMs to buy new chips to combat thermal issues
You will no doubt remember that NVIDIA had some thermal issues with its GeForce 8M series GPUs this year. Following a technical revision of GPUs NVIDIA is now encouraging OEMs to buy updated chips.
www.zdnet.com
Why Nvidia’s duff chips are due to shoddy engineering
Editors Note: From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some …
www.semiaccurate.com
(I find it unlikely that NVIDIA would have focused in this hard on their flip-chip methodology if the problem were solely related to RoHS-compliant solder balls.)
My guess is that the reballing process helps the underfill and/or flip-chip bonding in some way due to the higher temperatures involved, but that the root problem is probably not solely due to the BGA solder balls themselves.
EDIT: Interestingly, the “semiaccurate” website’s deep dive says that part of the problem could also be due to the solder balls on the flip-chip die (often called “bumps”) using a high-lead formula rather than a eutectic formula, leading them to be more fragile in the case of thermal stress.
Were you guys swapping the balls on the silicon GPU die itself, or on the green PCB substrate (i.e., die-to-interposer or interposer-to-motherboard layer)? I’ve done a bit of work at the latter scale and cannot imagine the steadiness of hand that would be required for the former...
Why Nvidia’s Chips are defective
Editors Note: From time to time, SemiAccurate will be republishing some older articles by its authors, some with additional commentary, updates and information. We are mainly reprinting some …
www.semiaccurate.com
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